


The Paradox Room

by Merfilly



Category: Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, Doctor Who (1963), Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Deus Ex Machina, Gen, Slice of Life, Timey-Wimey
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-01
Updated: 2020-12-01
Packaged: 2021-03-08 23:16:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,173
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27184387
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Merfilly/pseuds/Merfilly
Summary: Sometimes, the Doctor needs a break. Or thinks his Companions do. Either way, the Paradox Room is there.
Relationships: Fourth Doctor & Sarah Jane Smith & Harry Sullivan, Tegan Jovanka/Nyssa of Traken, Tenth Doctor & Donna Noble
Comments: 8
Kudos: 26
Collections: Public Call - Doctor Who fic exchange 2020





	The Paradox Room

**Author's Note:**

  * For [human_nature (AllyHR)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/AllyHR/gifts).



> human_nature (AllyHR), I loved your prompts, and decided to try to mix them up into a slice of Timey-Wimey life. I hope you enjoy.

"Doctor," Sarah began, only to have him put a finger over his lips as he continued to fiddle with the controls. She cast a look to Harry, but Harry merely shook his head and shrugged. She sighed and decided to go see if she could find something to read or explore in the corridors of the TARDIS. She was not all that surprised when Harry followed.

"I think he's gone mad." Harry then gave that endearing half-smile of his. "Well, madder than the usual."

"I just wish I knew why he was keeping us cooped up, not going anywhere!" Sarah said with a huff. If she hadn't been walking she might well have stamped her heel too.

"Maybe he broke the TARDIS when he whisked us out of that last mishap?" Harry offered to be charitable. Sarah glared at him.

"Then he should admit it."

Harry didn't argue, following her deeper into the labyrinthine passages, until they came out in —

— a ballroom? Fancy party room, at least, Sarah decided, looking at the elegant lighting and tables and chairs.

The mirrors around the room made it seem endless, but…

"Harry, look!"

Sarah pointed and he listened, turning to see what had caught her attention.

"There's other people in the mirrors, all of them. Not us, even," he said.

"Of course they're not us; I wouldn't have pointed up our own reflections!" she said in exasperation.

The Doctor came in behind them, and Sarah turned to look at him, not wearing his coat or scarf. He looked almost rakish, top two shirt buttons undone, sleeves rolled midway to his elbows, and the waistcoat still buttoned up.

"Doctor, what is this?" Sarah asked.

"A holiday," he said quite seriously, and waved. "Other times, other possibilities in the TARDIS, all celebrating or just relaxing."

Sarah looked back, realizing she could not make out the features of any of the 'reflections' but there seemed to be at least two, sometimes three, in each of the mirrors but one.

That one, an old man, face still obscured from her sight, sat alone in a darkened version of the ballroom.

"Why is he alone?" Harry asked, having come to that mirror.

The Doctor frowned, then clapped his hands together. "His business. Now, shall we sample the food, make merry, and enjoy our time in this paradox room?"

"Why is it called a paradox room?" Harry looked all around, but food was not to be ignored.

"You said 'the' TARDIS," Sarah followed up. "Those are other times, other Companions, other yous?"

She distinctly remembered her first Doctor, all of his panache and flair, and the shock of the change that had brought them this Doctor.

"Perhaps, maybe, who knows?" the Doctor asked in dismissal. "After the last little accident, I thought it would be nice to surprise you with a holiday, Sarah Jane, and everyone knows Harry always needs time off."

"I'd take offense, but you are correct," Harry told him, as he investigated the foods. At least none of them were moving, Sarah decided, joining him.

"Thank you, Doctor," she told him, and watched him get the quiet smile, the one that was more intimate than his usual tomfoolery grin.

"You're welcome."

* * *

"Spaceman, if you have a room that looks this good, why's the rest of the place look like sh—"

"Hey! None of that! You'll hurt her feelings!"

Donna looked all around, then shook her head. "The mirrors are creepy."

The Doctor looked over, then away, and knew Donna didn't fail to notice it. She was astute, if blunt, at times.

"You think they are too," she accused.

"Too many memories at times," he admitted. "But the food is always the best," he told her, leading her over to the spread already laid out.

"I still don't get it, how," and Donna made a huge gesture at everything all around her, then jabbed a hand at the food table, "this can happen."

"The paradox room is where the TARDIS channels all of the small causality effects she has to negate. So when, for instance, I throw a tantrum and get a Prime Minister removed that was supposed to be in power for years, the TARDIS converts the energy toward maintaining the food and decor in here.

"I actually thought I'd lost the room back — no, dates don't matter. But she either grew it back, or—"

"Or you just make that many paradoxes she has to eat for you," Donna said, smugly, as she piled up a plate of goodies.

"Or that," the Doctor agreed, getting a slightly less impressive stack of food.

"The people in the mirrors?" Donna prompted. "Can't make their faces out."

"Can't make a paradox in the paradox room," the Doctor said, closing his eyes. He knew most of the faces already, but he couldn't bear to look at the mirrors where the people wore unfamiliar clothing. He'd start trying to guess which one was him, some time future from here. "Technically, several mes cannot occupy the same spot in the time stream, even in suspended time as we have inside here.

"So the fudge on the rule is just to keep from knowing it is me in the other mirrors, see?"

"No."

Donna's patent disbelief and mocking face vanished with the next sweet bite she found, though, so the Doctor did not take umbrage. Instead, he took pleasure in the quiet, happy pleasure of his Companion with good food to explore.

* * *

The Doctor had left, going to find out what was keeping Turlough, letting Nyssa and Tegan have a little time to themselves in the lavish ballroom.

"I keep thinking about the one by himself," Nyssa admitted, head flicking slightly in that direction.

Tegan frowned. "I really don't want to. He… all by himself like that, when all the other mirrors are two or three people? It's terrible."

Nyssa nodded, then stood up. "Just because he can't see our faces, and he might not even know us, doesn't mean he can't be cheered up if he needs it. Show me more of your dancing? In direct line of sight with his mirror."

Tegan beamed and stood, going along with this plan. "You really do have the best ideas."

* * *

The Doctor sat alone, the lights dim, and remembered.

He remembered the good, the bad, the ugly.

He kept moving, kept fighting, and had only taken this moment to make himself remember why.

The Daleks had to be stopped, or all of this, all the good and the bad, would cease to be, and the universe would be remade in their image.

And then the girls were there. He knew those clothes, could use his memory to paint the couple's face where the mirror failed to give them.

As always, they were reaching out, pulling him out of his grim emotions, without even knowing the how or why of them.

When the lights dimmed in all the mirrors, this Doctor left, faith renewed.

For every Companion he'd traveled with… he would bear the burden and keep fighting.


End file.
